Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers are now on strike nationwide as they take a stand against what they say are unfair company practices. Barry Wygel has more from Albany.
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Thousands of Verizon workers along the East Coast are on strike Wednesday. Nearly 40,000 people, including some workers in the Capital Region, are protesting outsourced jobs.
Workers have not reached an agreement with Verizon after 10 months of contract negotiations. They say they've seen more than 5,000 jobs outsourced to the Philippines, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. That's caused a 40 percent cut in U.S. workers in the last decade.
The workers are represented by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers unions, who said in a statement:
"Verizon’s corporate greed isn’t just harming workers’ families, its hurting customers as well. Service quality has deteriorated to the point that New York State’s Public Service Commission has convened a formal hearing to investigate problems across the Empire State."
Meanwhile, Verizon says it is prepared for the strike, and has a plan together so that business is not disrupted.
The company will be training non-union employees and reassigning corporate employees to handle customer inquiries, maintenance and repairs while workers are on strike.
Local employees are striking Wednesday morning at the local corporate office on State Street in Albany.